I think I'm a part of the first generation of journalists to skip print media entirely, and I've learned a lot these last few years at Forbes. My work has appeared on TVOvermind, IGN, and most importantly, a segment on The Colbert Report at one point. Feel free to follow me on Twitter or on Facebook, write me on Facebook or just email at paultassi(at)gmail(dot)com. I'm also almost finished with my sci-fi novel series, The Earthborn Trilogy.

Mass Effect 3's Citadel DLC: At Last, The Perfect Goodbye

It seems like only yesterday we were sitting around debating whether or not the ending of Mass Effect 3 was misinterpreted, bad or simply the worst. It was one of the more fascinating controversies in modern gaming history, and a debate that has stuck with me to this day.

It was a rare occasion of fan outcry being so intense that Bioware was forced to try and make amends. They added an “extended cut” ending of the game, which was well and good, but didn’t fix most of the core problems with the ending. No matter what happened with the Reapers and the galaxy, many fans just wanted a time to say goodbye to their friends whom they’d spend the last hundred hours with over the course of three games.

After a few mission-centric DLCs, Omega and Leviathan, one more was fashioned: Citadel. It’s been oddly marketed, appearing to be a combination of an actual mission and something resembling Skyrim’s Hearthfire where you get to pimp out a brand new luxury pad on the Citadel.

But really, it’s much more than that, and yes it’s absolutely worth $15 and 4 gigs of your hard drive (I had to delete Halo 4 multiplayer just to make it fit). Finally, it’s the goodbye fans have been wanting since the last game ended, and really, it’s one of the few times DLC actually does something that gameplay included with the original box copy could not. It’s satisfying and emotional, and it’s hard to imagine this final chapter being told any other way but through DLC, surprisingly enough. Citadel is fan service of the highest order, but as I’ve always said, that’s just good business. It’s also fortunate that it works from a story perspective as well.

(minor Citadel story spoilers follow)

The new tale begins with Anderson summoning Shepard to the Citadel. When Shepard arrives, Anderson gives him the figurative keys to his luxury apartment, saying he needs to “relax and recharge.” Enter the “Hearthfire” comparisons as you learn that you can buy items to spruce the place up, but it’s barely an afterthought and nowhere near the focus of the DLC.

Rather, the actual plot begins when Joker and Shepard are assaulted in the Citadel by mercenaries. What follows is two plus hours of combat where Shepard and his squad (all members, thankfully) are pitted against a mysterious foe who has hacked into Shepard’s credentials, and is essentially attempting to steal his identity.

The combat is what we’ve come to expect from the game with a new gun here or there, and a few fun battles. Most notably, it was cool to run through the Citadel archives, where holographs showed pieces of the history of the galaxy in between firefights.

If you think things are over by the time the new foe is vanquished, you’re wrong. Rather, what we really came here to see comes next.

The lion’s share of the DLC’s content, nearly three hours worth, is a chance to bond with your crew members one last time. Citadel takes place just before Shepard begins the final assault that ends the game, and so it seemed like the most logical place to insert such content.

You’ll spend a long time running around the newly unlocked area of the Citadel, meeting friends for drinks or inviting them to stop by the apartment for a chat. You’ll play wingman with Garrus, attend a memorial for Thane, or watch a romantic movie with Tali. In the end, nearly every major or minor crew member is given their quiet (or sometimes loud) moment with Shepard.

And that’s still not all. After all the lunch dates are done, it’s time to throw a party. I suspect that Bioware may have in part been inspired by this piece of fan art which circulated after the game ended. A happy ending would have been nice, although it wasn’t necessary, and the crew partying it up was an image that made more than a few fans smile.

Artist credit: Hellstern

Well, here it’s been brought to life in the game. You do indeed throw a party at your new place, and it can be a rager or a quiet get-together depending on your preferences. I went all out, and it was a blast. The party comes in three stages, and the game has you mill about with all your friends during each, watching them get progressively more inebriated as the night goes on. As someone who makes sure to listen to every bit of conversation the game has to offer, as to not miss a thing, I spent probably a solid ninety minutes at the event, longer than I’ve stayed at many parties in the real world.

It’s simply fun, all of it. Sure there’s a mission where people are trying to kill you, but comedy is actually a big focus of Citadel. There are a ton of inside jokes from the series littered throughout the DLC, and watching your crew get hammered and reminisce is both hilarious and touching. Between the party allowing everyone to let off steam, and the quiet conversations allowing for a more sentimental goodbye, Bioware has covered all their bases here.

This is unapologetic fan service, to the point where it might annoy some. But honestly, I loved it, and I expect many fans will feel the same. If you’re as attached to the universe as I am, booting up this DLC was like getting to see all your old friends again. They spared no expense in assembling the entire voice cast, and not one character feels neglected, nor do you, as a fan.

It’s really something to think about how this could not have come about in a form other than DLC. It couldn’t have been the actual ending, as that’s simply not how the tale should end and it would have been cheesy to the point of poor storytelling. It would have been awkward to actually include it in the original game, as three hours of conversations planted in the middle would have felt very out of place. Rather, as it is exists, it’s all rather perfect. This is exactly what DLC should be.

Of course not everyone will fully be satisfied, but Citadel is a welcome return to the Mass Effect universe, and one that reminds us that we may have been mad in part because we simply didn’t want the game to end. Citadel allows us a very, very lengthy goodbye, and most fans will likely appreciate every second of it, myself included.

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It’s so surprising to see something written by Paul Tassi that isn’t blatantly pandering to anti-ending sentiment. Even if it has the obligatory “wah, it didn’t fix all the things I don’t approve of” remark.

I was not “pandering” when I was giving my honest opinion about the initial ending. And I didn’t say it didn’t satisfy ME, I said it may not satisfy OTHERS because that always tends to be the case. I thought it was very near perfect, as the title says.

“Honest opinion” includes things like “fear-mongering that Omega won’t sell well because of the ending despite Leviathan’s sales” and “let’s keep saying that this DLC is on the disc despite knowing that’s not true”? There’s an obvious difference between giving an honest opinion and parroting a dishonest opinion simply to appeal to other people who benefit from the propagation of deceit and ignorance. Also, the second part is referring to your “didn’t fix most of the core problems with the ending” squeal in reference to the Extended Cut. I thought it would have been obvious, but I suppose I overlooked your article praising the idea of Indoctrination Theory.

Regardless, you know a precedent of expectations has been set when I even gave pause when this article showed up on my Facebook feed. “A Mass Effect article? Cool.” I said. “From Forbes.” I noted, sadly, as I saw the source.

“It’s….positi-”

I didn’t get to finish the thought because a flying pig’s hoof hit me in the skull and knocked me out for a few hours.

I don’t understand what you are quoting. “fear-mongering that Omega won’t sell well because of the ending despite Leviathan’s sales”? Did Paul say that? Was he drunk? What was he talking about and how does it relate to what you’re talking about?

That’s true you were giving your own opinion, that being said I never saw anything on this site (you especially) that talked about the actual purpose of the ending.

Bioware’s dev’s said it themselves that they would rather let people decide for themselves about the endings then put out a literal one. You can call that a cheap move to make all you want but I get the feeling (and correct me if I am wrong) that you and MANY others simply don’t read (or watch I guess) much Sci-Fi at all.

In many cases Sci-Fi is about the big ideas. The ascension of mankind. It’s about embracing the unknown and hoping that with a greater understanding (Synthesis) that we, as living creatures of all kinds can make things work.

It’s about making the hard choices that have no real answers but those that you decide for yourselves.

But most of all, it’s also about being human in a very non-human place far from home or what you think of as home.

To give a few examples…

Some people won’t choose destroy because they argue that it’s genocide. You’re no better then the Reapers if you kill the Geth. Some argue that it’s perfectly acceptable because they simply don’t believe that Machines of any kind are truly living creatures. Niether one of them are wrong because Bioware’s ending allows for both “choices” to be made.

My cannon ending is synthesis. Many people have insulted me or told me to kill myself because I chose it. Many people have threatens to “kill” me because I’ve stated that I’m fine with the endings. I wasn’t motivated to like the endings because I was a fanboy, but because I had something in my head. A quote:

“No longer mere Earth-beings and Planet-beings are we, but bright children of the stars. And together we shall dance in and out of ten billion years, celebrating the gift of consciousness, until the stars themselves grow cold and weary, and our thoughts turn again to the beginning.” –Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri, The Ascent To Transcendence–

For me my I made my decision with a swell of hope and wonder in place of the expected triumphalism…not knowing for sure since I was sacrificing myself and all that I ever was when I made my choice…but hoping that the events of the game weren’t the entirety of mankind’s future, but just another step in our long journey to the stars.

One could certainly argue that Bioware messed up on the presentation of the endings but as for them being shallow and only being three (or four) choices all together…that’s an outright lie that people have said for basically a year now.

So yes, you were pandering because I never saw you or really anybody else really think about things. They never pondered the moralities, or the philosophies, they never went out of their way to discover that Synthesis does not decrease diversity in the galaxy but instead increases it a thousandfold. These are all things that are not just my opinion, but readily available in a book, or a movie, or in a conversation.

I’ve spent many hours discussing just how my universe fared with Synthesis. After all, it gives Organics the ability to upgrade like Synthetics and gives Synthetics the ability to understand Organics. But it doesn’t promise their will be no war.

So you pandered, but I don’t blame you really. Virtually everyone got swept up in the hate and disappointment.

I’m not saying, after what I’ve said that you have to like the endings. You don’t. I’m not saying I’m some super smart person because I know something you don’t. I’m saying you got swept up and never really looked around.

“That’s true you were giving your own opinion, that being said I never saw anything on this site (you especially) that talked about the actual purpose of the ending.”

How does someone especially not do something amongst a group of people also not doing it? In any case, Paul made a case for the Indoctrination Theory, does that count?

“only being three (or four) choices all together…that’s an outright lie that people have said for basically a year now.”

I don’t see anything you’ve said countering this unless you’re making an argument that every interpretation counts as a separate ending, which I wouldn’t be able to see as anything but an exercise in redefining words.

” They never pondered the moralities, or the philosophies, they never went out of their way to discover that Synthesis does not decrease diversity in the galaxy but instead increases it a thousandfold. These are all things that are not just my opinion, but readily available in a book, or a movie, or in a conversation.”

Because we all just got done playing Mass Effect and we were expecting something contextual to that experience not just a generic (which unfortunately you just made a great case for the genericness of) philosophical question that we could all discuss while sitting under a tree in lieu of an ending. If I gave you the platform, I’m sure you could type all day about what you think about Synthesis but without referencing anything prior to the walk to your choice, can you say anything substantive about your Shepard outside of the fact they sacrificed themselves? How would I distinguish your Shepard that chose Synthesis from one of mine that did so? I could tell you all kinds of things about my Warden from Dragon Age using only information from the point of the post celebration ceremony after the defeat of the Arch Demon because that game has endings that are contextual to how I played the game.

I don’t know why Bioware would make such a DLC to pacify these “anti-ending” fans. Let’s not forget, some of these “fans” were the same ones who demanded a new ending (without figuring out the current ending first by using all the information in the game before screaming to Bioware that it doesn’t make any sense or it was full of plot holes), as well as harassed and got pretty abusive with Bioware’s staff.

Or sometimes manipulative with them as well (if you don’t do X, I’m not going to buy another game from you). Seriously, Bioware should just invoke the “right to refuse service” at this point on those “fans”. They don’t deserve anything. As a business they do have the right to “fire their customers” and find new ones.

It’s one thing to not like an ending. It’s another thing to demand that something be changed. Some people who played the game just didn’t like the ending, but they didn’t feel that it ruined the other 98% of the game.

They didn’t feel the need to start petitions or demand a rewrite (explanation isn’t good enough for these “fans”, they wanted a complete rewrite).

Imagine the headlines. Bioware rewrites the ending, after angry “fans” failed use all the information in the game to figure out the ending first before coming to them and asking for help.

I didn’t need to ask them for help, because I was able to figure out the ending on my own.

As for the Citadel DLC, I liked it. Of course, not the whole party thing, but the first half was pretty good. Sort of had this unreal tone to it. Something to do with a hallucination caused by a certain sushi fish found there. The whole DLC is one big hallucination. That’s why it kind of feels out of place, or people acting out of character. Classic dream content right there.

Did anyone notice that Brooks gets shot in the chest, and then later on in the DLC is walking around fine without a scratch.

This whole DLC is not real. It’s a dream or nightmare in Shepard’s mind. That’s why some feel it doesn’t feel like it fits in the Mass Effect universe (some news sites said this).

Good review. I definitely enjoyed the inside jokes and the return of the awful M7. I used a save file right at the end of the game so I’ll look forward to running through this again when I eventually start a new game.

Here we go again! *sigh* NO, NO, NO, it shouldn’t have been in the vanilla game. Are you a complete neanderthal? This dlc was made AFTER the release of ME3, not during its development process. I bet you have no idea about the whole “dlc” issue, I advice you to stfu.

Absolutely! DLC-business is just “money-extraction” from the users. Well, basically, I have no problems with DLCs, but they should be FREE. After all DLC means downloadable CONTENT, not downloadable ADDITION, so one can easily see that everything any DLC could ever contain, belongs to the original game already! But I know that many people like to get fried in little steps, just like the frog in the hot water… Or show me anybody who is willing to pay 120 Euros for a game in one go… But with DLCs, the people are happy to pay and pay and pay… This is sick business, but most customers do not understand the basic problem…

Your analogy is flawed. Almost like saying a cable company gives you a basic cable package, but you want all the premium channels included in the basic package at no extra cost. Or that they cut the premium channels from the basic package to sell it to you at an inflated price.

You got a complete game with ME3. Gamers might not like DLC, but you have a choice whether or not to buy it. That is the only way companies will listen. You can sit there and pout all you want (using caps in your sentences is considered yelling), but they are under no obligation to comply.

Oh and thanks Paul for your honest coverage of the game. I may not always have agreed with everything you said about it, but you, and other Forbes contributors have always given the impression that thats the point of all this. Not the old fashioned way where you get your gaming magazine articles opinion, and its like it or be stupid.

As a Garrusmancer, I’m happy with everything I’ve received in this DLC. It’s basically $15 worth of fan services and fluffs. I think this is by far the best DLC Bioware has offered. (Never been a fan of the Lair of the Shadow Broker.) When I play Mass Effect, I’m not looking at gameplay, but rather the adventure itself. The DLC provides plenty of good storytelling and even better character relationships. Unlike the last couple of single player DLCs, you actually get your bang for the buck. (Well, sort of.)

Either case, the game is still (and always will be) overshadowed by the ending, which feels extremely unresolved. This DLC further propagates the idea of “what could have been” when it comes to the Mass Effect franchise. I loved the DLC, but I also hated it for making me care once again. Now, I’m teary-eyed and have the insatiable need for watching football, you know, to stop the tears.

I said yesterday that I thought the DLC seemed a bit silly and the idea of taking over Anderson’s apartment was just plain stupid. I was wrong. I LOVED this DLC and spent a good 5+ hours playing it with one of my past Shepards I picked at random (unfortunately she was full-blown renegade so I was missing Miranda, Samara, and Wrex and Ashley had gone to Hackett instead of rejoining with me). It was so much fun, I couldn’t believe it. The actual mission is even fun and so ridiculous in such a great way. I loved Shepard being able to spend time with everyone (even Zaeed, which was a little more emotional than it normally would’ve been). My Shep threw a rager too and it was spectacular, although I have to say when its over and its quiet in that GIANT apartment (seriously Anderson? You needed that much room…?) it’s rather depressing. I wish the level of banter in this game and DLC was the norm for the entire series, but there’s not much to do about it now. Everyone heading back to the Normandy actually made me cry, I have no problems admitting that I was sitting on my couch with tears rolling down my face like the girl I am. I loved it so much I almost immediately loaded another save of a paragon Shep with everyone alive, so I imagine it’ll be even longer this time. Knowing how the game ends, that there’s a good possibility that Shepard will never see these people again, makes it heart breaking (to me, at least!) but I love it (and them!) all so much I’ll deal.

All of this happened with a brand new copy of Tomb Raider sitting on my tv stand. I’ll get to that eventually. Mass Effect will always take priority.

I find it amazing how controversial Mass Effect 3 has become, but I would have to credit that to the fact that gamers, somehow, have become so emotionally attached to these digital characters that emotions are easily stirred when everything blows up in Red, Green or Blue and then nothing more.

I was quite skeptical of this DLC to be honest because I still want a clear understanding as to what happened in the end and why did Shepard take a breath in somewhere’s rubble.

But your review confirms my suspicion that this may be a very worthwhile DLC despite my jaded views of the ending. I just started playing the DLC last night, and began to feel that it WAS money well spent.

First, a disclaimer – I haven’t played this DLC, nor do I intend to, having been left with such a bad taste in my mouth from the original ending and (more significantly ),Bioware’s reaction to it. So if anyone wants to take these thoughts with a grain of salt, I understand. But my thought from reading the various descriptions of Citadel make it seem completely tone deaf. The incongruity of running around doing side missions while Earth is obliterated by Reapers is bad enough, but at least they try to make up for it by having them tangentially related to Galactic Readiness – Shepard as project manager, if you will.

But there is no way -NO WAY – Shepard would take a freaking vacation in the middle of the Reaper War. I’m sorry, but I don’t see any way that can fit into the story without being completely condescending .

PS – sorry if there are a bunch of formatting/spelling errors, But I’m doing this on my tablet and Forbes’ ribbon at the top of the screen is Aking it almlst impossible for me to tell what I’m typing.

Throwing a party while innocent people relying on you at home are dying just because “of ship repairs” doesn’t exactly help with immersion. Suspension of disbelief can only go so far. Joe had the right idea.

What really is the fact that this DLC is easily the best of the current crop – it’s light-years ahead of the short and lore-breaking Leviathan and the 2-hour corridor shooter Omega.

I’m at a loss to explain how the team at Bioware could have crafted something this good (at least the post-mission content), and chose to sit on their hands for a year, whether unintentionally or not, antagonizing their fans and letting the media run rampant over them when they had the capability to put out quality content. I watched part of it yesterday, and was blown away – there is a memorial scene and a Liara romance in particular that is easily on par, if not better than, the majority of the character content from Mass Effect 2.

The problem is that this is still pre-ending – it makes little sense why you’re running around seeing moments like Jacob helping young Alliance recruits or fixing the bugs in the Armax Combat Arena with the knowledge that the entire locale gets invaded and half-destroyed a short time later in-game.

I get the feeling that Bioware, either out of stubborn pride or arrogance, refused to change the endings to allow the possibility to play it after the Priority: Earth mission. The whole DLC has a strong sense of finality, and even the final scene at the Normandy dock is thematically more fitting for the game than the idiocy of the original ending (where it was implied the entire galaxy was left in the Stone Age).

As far as I’m concerned, Bioware isn’t getting any more of my money. The controversy and backlash over the last year, and the literal erosion of most of the fanbase, wasn’t worth an “apology” DLC released long after the fact.

Really? This takes place before the end so how could this be a perfect good bye if this doesn’t affect the over all game nor the ending? We are still left with loss ends despite that the EC was suppose to give. I’m done reaching for straws. I wanted to like the EC and I thought this was a good DLC (Youtubed it), yet the ending still needs work. I wanted to like the EC. I hoped they would at least elaborate on the breathing scene. That was the only reason I didn’t walk away. If that isn’t a loss end, I don’t know what is. If they at least say, “Shepard is coming back in ME4″, I’ll would forgive. Yet I’ve lost hope for that too seeing how they said they aren’t having Shepard back. I got attached to Shepard, they did a good job of putting us in Shep’s boots. If you like everything as it, I wish I could agree. I want to agree, yet I still can’t be okay with the way things are. I don’t see why this couldn’t be post ending or why there will most likely not be a post ending DLC when they said they were going to do one. Until the fallow Fallout’s 3′s example, I’m done.

I just watched a walkthrough on Youtube and It looked good. It attemted to give some sort of closure. I liked that. However, not enough.

I wont be playing the game nor will I be playing any game from Bioware again. I have returned safely to “Never buy EA crap”, a rule that many oldtimers instigated after bullfrog and westwood got gobbled up and milked. Now, Im just waiting for the final insult. A “Syndicate” esque new “arc” of the game where I can laugh at people for buying a perversion of glory times gone by. A “pew pew” game where storytelling finally gets relegated to the past of Bioware.

We will meet again though. When Bioware releases DA3 it will meet with the same shitefest as ME3. Mostly because, no matter how good the game is, it will be gone over with a toothpick for logic/lore inconsistencies and retcons, aside from the usual bugs found in any game. And since DA3 has to deliver storytelling on a LotR-esque scale to placate fans, its going to fail. That will put the final nail in the coffin of Bioware.

Hopefully other studios will have learned something. That you communicate with your fanbase. Not to them.

This to me was just filler AGAIN! I remember when DLC was relly good like oh I don’t know maybe MASS EFFECT 2!? At least the DLC for that was worth my time and money. They kept pumping the multiplayer side for ME3, and made the single player feel left out. They never should have made the DLC fill in gaps, people really never cared about that, all we wanted was a continuation of what’s next? This would of course bridge the gap until the next ME4… Bioware you did such a good job on ME2 too bad you botched ME3…

It is a precise and concise review, you capture the essence of this, it is simply a dlc for fans, I couldnt agree more; you should have mention the mini-games that are also kinda of fun, especially the armax arena, good job